One year after her decisive victory over Scott Brown, Senator Elizabeth Warren invited the most active volunteers from her campaign to a celebration today at the Summer Shack in Cambridge. I asked some of the Lowell volunteers who attended to share their thoughts about this event and about Senator Warren’s tenure thus far.

Here is what Nancy wrote:

On Sunday afternoon of this long holiday week end, Jack, Judith and I, three veterans of the Elizabeth Warren Lowell campaign, went to the Summer Shack at Alewife in Cambridge. Our ride down was uneventful and the crowd at the Summer Shack was already in a party mood when we arrived. The servers were circling the room with appetizers from mini crab rolls, to teriyaki chicken to sliders and even scallops wrapped in bacon. I decided I wanted to grab a seat, so we headed over to the raised booths under the blackboard. We started talking with a Warren volunteer from Watertown and our conversation was about how we had also worked on the Markey campaign. We all agreed that the Warren campaign was the better experience.

Senator Warren began her remarks with an admonition to the back of the class to quiet down and pay attention! She soon had us captivated telling us how each day she wakes up thinking about how she will fight for all of us each day. A highlight of her talk was the list of about 10 campaign staffers/volunteers now in elected office in Massachusetts. I can’t remember all of their names, but Michelle Wu was definitely one of them and about 5 are now on school committees.

It was very nice to be among the energy that Warren generates – and it was great to see Andrew and Ariela and others of the Warren campaign, like Gabe, at a social event. I even got to talk to Rob who was at the GLAD breakfast this morning.

One thing is clear, that the dynamism and energy of the Warren volunteers is still there for her – and I for one, will work for her reelection in 5 years.

And this from Judith, another key person in the Warren campaign in Lowell:

I’m somewhat of a political animal, but I’m not much of a mover-and-shaker type. However, if you mention Elizabeth Warren’s name, I’m all in. Today marked one year since the senator from Massachusetts was elected, and there was a reunion of those who worked on her campaign at the Summer Shack in Arlington. Those aren’t the types of events I usually attend, but for Elizabeth Warren I’d make any exception. She was just as enthusiastic about renewing her promise to us today as she was about making that promise to us for the year leading up to her election and keeping that promise to us during her first year in Washington. Elizabeth spoke to the optimist in all of us. Of course it was impossible for her not to make some mention of the antics that have led to the gridlock that is Washington today, but rather that dwell on that she focused on the progress that has been made. Bankers in this country now know that they better start paying attention to how they operate. The senate passed 2-to-1 anti-discrimination in employment legislation that will protect all Americans, no matter who they love. And we also have government financing for student loans that’s “less awful than the terrible” deal we’d previously made with students. Her message is clear: If you want to change the way things happen in this country, you’re not going to do it by checking out because you think “the system is broken.” We have to put ourselves out there to make change. We can’t all run for office, but we can all support someone whom we believe in.

At the end of the event, someone at our table asked if we thought she’d just hinted at a run for President. I didn’t hear that. I heard that she is going to continue to fight for us for the length of her term. We had some discussion about her potential as a Presidential candidate and we all agreed: We need Elizabeth Warren in the Senate where she’s fighting the good fight for the middle class in Massachusetts as well as the rest of the country. For my part, I hope she has it in her for a second term.